Apparatus, printers, and methods to remove material from a printer surface

ABSTRACT

Apparatus, printers, and methods to remove material from a printer surface are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a fluid remover to remove printing material from a printer surface, and a coating material reservoir to store coating material and to apply the coating material to the fluid remover to reduce an amount of printing material transferred to the fluid remover from the printer surface.

PRIORITY

This application is a Continuation of commonly assigned and copendingU.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/110,686, filed Oct. 8, 2013, whichis a national stage filing under 35 U.S.C. §371 of PCT applicationnumber PCT/US2011/034680, having an international filing date of Apr.29, 2011, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by referencein their entireties.

BACKGROUND

Some printers generate hard images using inks suspended in a carrierfluid. After applying the inks and carrier fluid to a transfer surface,some or all of the carrier fluid is removed from the transfer surfaceand/or recycled to facilitate drying of the ink, fixation of the imageto the substrate, and/or formation of the hard image.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example fluid remover, constructed in accordancewith the teachings herein.

FIG. 2 is an isometric view of another example fluid remover,constructed in accordance with the teachings herein.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example printer including a printer surface andthe example fluid remover of FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Squeegee rollers are used in known printers to remove excess fluids(e.g., carrier fluid for a marking agent) from a surface. The squeegeeroller applies pressure to the surface, thereby forcing excess fluid toflow off of the surface. The amount of fluid remaining on the surface ofthe squeegee depends on the pressure between the squeegee roller and thesurface. Known squeegee rollers can cause damage to an image formed frommarking agents arranged on a printer surface when the squeegee rollerapplies pressure. In particular, some marking agents, when applied toprinter surfaces having a higher temperature (e.g., a intermediatetransfer member, a blanket), develop adhesive properties and may betransferred from the printer surface to the squeegee roller. Such atransfer can disrupt the pattern of the marking agent that should betransferred to a substrate for fixation and creation of a hard image(e.g., a print).

A transfer of marking agents, printing material, and/or other fluid(s)from one surface to another is referred to herein as “back-transfer.” Anexample of back-transfer is the transfer of marking agent forming alatent image from a blanket to a squeegee roller. Back-transfer canoccur in known squeegee rollers because: 1) the blanket is made of alow-surface-energy material and the printing material on the blankettends to transfer to a higher-surface-energy squeegee when the twosurfaces meet at a nip; and/or 2) melted printing material on arelatively hot blanket may solidify when brought into contact with acold squeegee roller as the phase transition reduces free enthalpy ofthe printing material.

Example apparatus, printers, and methods disclosed herein use a fluidremover including a remover surface to remove excessive printingmaterial (e.g., carrier oil) from a printer surface, such as a transferblanket to reduce or even prevent the back-transfer problem of the priorart. More specifically, some example apparatus, printers, and methodsdisclosed herein prepare a latent image on a blanket for subsequenttransfer to a print substrate by removing carrier fluid with a fluidremover without disrupting the latent image on the blanket. In someexamples, the fluid remover includes a remover surface, such as asqueegee roller, that forms a nip with a printer surface from which theprinting fluid is to be removed. The remover surface is coated with acoating material to reduce, avoid, or even prevent back-transfer of theprinting fluid from the printing surface to the remover surface.

In some examples, a coating blade is provided to receive coatingmaterial from a coating material reservoir and to apply the coatingmaterial to the remover surface. The coating blade applies a pressure tothe remover surface to reduce a thickness of the coating material on theremover surface. By reducing the thickness of the coating materialapplied to the remover surface, an amount of printing fluid that may beremoved from the printer surface is increased. Additionally, exampleapparatus, printers, and methods disclosed herein effectively removeprinting material from a printing surface in a wide range ofcondition(s) on the printing surface, such as temperature, pressure,and/or electrical fields which may be affecting the printer surfaceand/or the printing material.

In some examples the coating material used to coat the remover surfaceis the same material as the printing material. Some example coatingmaterials act as lubricants between the remover surface and the printersurface. Example apparatus, printers, and methods disclosed hereinreduce or even prevent cross-contamination of printer materials and/orother materials that are on the printer surface.

As used herein, the term “printing material” refers to any solid orfluid material or combination of solid and/or fluid materials that maybe used in a printing and/or image forming apparatus including, but notlimited to, marking agents, pigments, toners, dyes, inks, carrierfluids, resins, oils, washing fluids, image coating materials, substratecoating materials, print substrate pre-treatment materials, and/or printsubstrate post-treatment materials. In some examples disclosed herein,the printing material includes a combination of marking agent, carrierfluid, and resin, where the carrier fluid is to be removed from aprinter surface by a remover surface and a coating material on theremover surface is to reduce or even prevent adhesion of solid and/orfluid materials (e.g., the marking agent and/or the resin) to theremover surface.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example fluid remover 100 constructed inaccordance with the teachings of this disclosure. The example fluidremover 100 of FIG. 1 may be used to remove printing material 102 from aprinter surface 104. In particular, the fluid remover 100 of theillustrated example includes a coating material 106 to prevent theprinting material 102 from adhering to the fluid remover 100. Theexample fluid remover 100 of FIG. 1 further includes a coating materialreservoir 108 to store coating material 106 and to apply the coatingmaterial 106 to the fluid remover 100. The printing material 102 mayhave adhesive properties when applied to the printer surface 104. As aresult, shear stresses caused by the fluid remover 100 could, in theabsence of the example coating material 106, cause the printing material102 or an underlying material (e.g., a marking agent, a resin) to beremoved from the printing surface 104 or otherwise disrupted.

The coating material 106 of the illustrated example acts as a lubricantbetween the fluid remover 100 and the printing material 102. The coatingmaterial 106 reduces an amount of the printing material 102 that istransferred to the fluid remover 100 from the printer surface 104. Insome examples, the coating material 106 prevents the printing material102 from being transferred to the fluid remover 100 from the printersurface 104. The example coating material 106 is applied to the fluidremover 100 and formed into a relatively thin layer (e.g., about 9 nmthick although other thicknesses may also be used). The thickness of theexample coating material 106 applied to the fluid remover 100 affects anamount of printing material 102 that is removed from the printer surface104. For example, as the thickness of the coating material 106decreases, the fluid remover 100 removes more printing material 102 fromthe printer surface 104. In examples where the printing material 102 isa carrier fluid (e.g., Isopar L) on a image transfer surface (e.g., arubber blanket) for a marking agent (e.g., Hewlett-Packard Electro Ink®inks) to be applied to a substrate, reducing the amount of printingmaterial 102 on the printer surface 104 advantageously reduces an amountof energy needed to prepare the marking agent for transfer and fixationonto the substrate.

FIG. 2 is an isometric view of an example apparatus 200 including afluid remover 201. The example fluid remover 201 of FIG. 2 includes aremover surface 202 and may be used to implement the example fluidremover 100 of FIG. 1 to remove printing material from a printersurface. The apparatus 200 of the illustrated example further includes acoating material reservoir 204, and a coating blade 206. The coatingmaterial reservoir 204 contains coating material 208, which is to beapplied to the surface 202 of the remover 201.

In the example of FIG. 2, the fluid remover 201 is a squeegee rollerthat forms a nip 214 with a printer surface (e.g., the printer surface104 of FIG. 1) to remove printing material from the printing surface104. The example remover surface 202 is an external surface of the fluidremover 201. The printing surface 104 moves along the remover surface202 as the remover surface 202 rotates. As shown in FIG. 2, the exampleremover surface 202 is in contact with the coating material 208contained in the coating material reservoir 204.

As the remover surface 202 rotates, the remover surface 202 is coatedwith the coating material 208 in the coating material reservoir 204. Thecoating material 208 acts as a lubricant and substantially preventsback-transfer of printing material from the printer surface 104 to theremover surface 202. The example coating blade 206 of FIG. 2 is incontact with the remover surface 202 to set a thickness of the coatingmaterial 208 on the remover surface 202. To this end, the coating blade206 applies a pressure to the remover surface 202, where the amount ofapplied pressure controls the thickness of the layer of coating material208 on the remover surface 202. Excess coating material 208 is removedby the coating blade 206 and may return to the coating materialreservoir 204. The thickness of the layer of coating material 208 lefton the remover surface 202 by the coating blade 206 is based on apressure between the coating blade 206 and the remover surface 202, theshape of the coating blade 206, the orientation of the coating blade 206relative to the remover surface 202, and/or the hardness of the coatingblade 206.

In operation, the remover surface 202 rotates. A section 210 of theremover surface 202 passes a seal 212 and contacts the coating material208 contained in the reservoir 204. The seal 212 reduces or preventsleakage of the coating material 208 below the remover surface 202. Aportion of the coating material 208 in the reservoir 204 coats thesection 210 of the remover surface 202 in a layer of arbitrarythickness. As the coated remover surface 202 continues to rotate, theexample coating blade 206 removes excess coating material 208 from thesection 210 to leave a relatively thin layer (e.g., about 9 nm thick)that coats the remover surface 202.

The section 210 of the remover surface 202 coated with the thin layer ofthe coating material 208 rotates to a nip 214. At the nip 214, theprinter surface 104 is coated with a marking agent (e.g.,Hewlett-Packard Electro Ink® inks) arranged to form an image to betransferred to a substrate, and a carrier fluid or solvent (e.g., IsoparL) that is used when applying the marking agent to the printer surface104.

The remover surface 202, coated with the layer of the coating material208, causes excess carrier fluid 216 to be removed from the printersurface 104. For example, the excess carrier fluid 216 may flow in adirection 218 perpendicular to a direction of travel 220 of the printersurface 104. The example apparatus 200 further includes a collectiontray 222 to collect the excess carrier fluid 216 removed from theprinter surface 104. In the illustrated example, the excess carrierfluid 216 flows to the sides of the remover surface 202 and down to thecollection tray 222. The collection tray 222 may further collectoverflowing coating material 208 from the coating material reservoir204. The excess carrier fluid and/or overflow coating material aredirected to a collection tank (not shown) from the collection tray 222.

In the illustrated example, the coating material 208 employed is thesame material as the printing material. As a result, the coatingmaterial 208 of the illustrated example does not contaminate theprinting material (or any underlying material such as a marking agent)by coming into contact with the printing material. However, the coatingmaterial 208 may alternatively be different than the printing material.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example printer 300 including a printer surface104 and the example apparatus 200 of FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 3, theexample apparatus 200 includes the example fluid remover 201, theexample coating material reservoir 204, the example coating blade 206,the example coating material 208, the example seal 212, and the examplecollection tray 222. The example fluid remover 201 is shown as asqueegee roller and includes the remover surface 202.

The example printer 300 further includes the example printer surface 104of FIGS. 1 and 2. In the illustrated example, the printer surface 104 isa blanket, an intermediate transfer roller, or any other type oftransfer surface. While the printer surface 104 is depicted in FIG. 3 asa roller or drum, this is only an illustrative example, and the exampleprinter surface 104 may be any type of surface, such as flat, concave,and/or convex, and/or the surface 104 may be oriented in any desiredmanner. The example printer of FIG. 3 further includes a developer drum302 and a transfer drum 304. The example developer drum 302 is a surfaceonto which marking agent and carrier fluid are initially deposited in apattern to form a desired image. When deposited onto the developer drum302, the carrier fluid carries the marking agent to the desiredlocations. However, this carrier fluid is not needed on the final fixedimage, and is therefore removed prior to a transfer of the image to asubstrate (e.g., at the printer surface 104). The developer drum 302transfers the carrier fluid and marking agent to the printer surface 104(e.g., a blanket) to form a first layer 306 having a first thickness,while maintaining the relative positioning of the marking agent to formthe desired image.

The example printer surface 104 of FIG. 3 rotates from the location atwhich the transfer of the carrier fluid and marking agent occurs to anip (e.g., the nip 214 of FIG. 2) between the remover surface 202 andthe printer surface 104. At the nip 214, the example remover surface 202removes a portion of the carrier fluid from the printer surface 104,leaving a second layer 308 having a second thickness less than the firstthickness. The example remover surface 202 leaves the marking agent(and, thus, the image) substantially undamaged because the coatingmaterial 208 serves as a lubricant to substantially prevent transfer ofthe marking agent from the printer surface 104 to the remover surface202. Excess carrier fluid 310 does not pass through the nip 214 but,instead, travels along the remover surface 202 to the collection tray222. Because the coating material 208 of the illustrated example is thesame as the carrier fluid 310, the excess carrier fluid 310 may becombined with overflow coating material 208 in the collection tray 222.In the example of FIG. 3, the carrier fluid 310 and/or the overflowcoating material 208 are drained from the collection tray for disposal,reuse, and/or recycling.

The example printer surface 104 continues to rotate the marking agentand any remaining carrier fluid from the nip 214 toward the transferdrum 304. At a nip 312 between the transfer drum 304 and the printersurface 104, the example printer surface 104 (e.g., the blanket)transfers the marking agent and carrier fluid to a print substrate 314in the nip 312 to form a hard image on the print substrate 314.

The example apparatus 200 may be installed in the printer 300. Forexample, the example coating material reservoir 204, the example coatingblade 206, the example seal 212, the example collection tray 222, andthe fluid remover 201, including the example remover surface 202, may bemounted or otherwise attached to the printer 300. In the example ofFIGS. 2 and 3, the fluid remover 201 is attached to the printer 300 suchthat the remover surface 202 forms the nip 214 with the example printersurface 104. Additionally, the example remover surface 202 is coatedwith a layer of coating material 208. The thickness of the layer ofcoating material 208 is based on a pressure between the remover surface202 and the coating blade 206, and based on the geometries of the blade206. In some examples, the coating blade 206 may be adjusted to set orchange the thickness of the layer of the coating material 208.

From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that above-disclosedapparatus, printers, and methods may be used to selectively remove atleast some printing material from a printing surface withoutback-transfer of the printing material or an underlying material fromthe printing surface. As a result, in examples in which a carrier fluidis removed from an image to be transferred, example apparatus, printers,and methods remove at least a portion of the carrier fluid withoutdamaging the image. Additionally, example apparatus, printers, andmethods disclosed herein may be used to replace other drying methods fora printer surface (e.g., heaters). By replacing alternative dryingmethods that use more energy, example apparatus, printers, and methodsdisclosed herein may remove excess printing material at lowermanufacturing and/or operating costs, and/or without contaminating theprinter surface with undesired materials.

Example apparatus, printers, and/or methods disclosed herein may be usedin many different applications to remove printing material from aprinter surface by using different coating materials and/or adjusting acoating blade to set different thicknesses of the coating material on afluid remover. Additionally, example apparatus, printers, and/or methodsdisclosed herein effectively remove printing material from a printingsurface with relative indifference to conditions on the printingsurface, such as temperature, pressure, and/or electrical fields of theprinter surface and/or the printing material.

Although certain example apparatus, printers, and methods have beendisclosed herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is not limitedthereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods, printers, andapparatus fairly falling within the scope of the claims of this patent.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method to remove material from a printersurface, comprising: coating a surface of a fluid remover with a layerof coating material; and moving the surface of the fluid remover coatedwith the layer of coating material along the printer surface to removeprinting material from the printer surface, wherein the coatingcomprises: rotating the fluid remover while a section of the surface ofthe fluid remover is in contact with the coating material contained in acoating material reservoir; and using a coating blade to remove excesscoating material from the section of the surface of the fluid removerafter the section of the surface of the fluid remover has been incontact with the coating material and before the surface of the fluidremover is moved along the printer surface.
 2. The method of claim 1,comprising: controlling an amount of pressure applied by the coatingblade to the surface of the fluid remover to set a thickness of thelayer of coating material on the surface of the fluid remover.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, comprising: returning the excess coating material tothe coating material reservoir.
 4. The method of claim 1, comprising:collecting the excess coating material and the removed printing materialin a collection tray.
 5. An apparatus to remove material from a printersurface, comprising: a fluid remover having a surface; and a coatingmaterial reservoir to store coating material and to apply the coatingmaterial to the surface of the fluid remover, wherein the surface of thefluid remover coated with the coating material is moved along theprinter surface to remove printing material from the printer surface. 6.The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the coating material reservoirincludes a coating blade in contact with the surface of the fluidremover to set a thickness of the coating material on the surface of thefluid remover.
 7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the coating materialreservoir includes a seal to prevent leakage of the coating materialwhen the coating material reservoir applies the coating material to thesurface of the fluid remover.
 8. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein theprinting material and the coating material are a same material.
 9. Theapparatus of claim 5, further comprising a collection tray to collectthe removed printing material and excess coating material.
 10. Theapparatus of claim 5, wherein the fluid remover comprises a squeegeeroller to apply pressure to the printer surface at a nip to remove theprinting material from the printing surface.
 11. A printer comprising: aprinter surface to receive a printing material; a fluid remover; and acoating material reservoir to store a coating material and apply thecoating material to the fluid remover, wherein the fluid remover coatedwith the coating material is to apply pressure to the printer surface toremove a portion of the printing material from the printer surface. 12.The printer of claim 11, wherein the coating material reservoir includesa coating blade to set a thickness of the coating material on the fluidremover.
 13. The printer of claim 11, wherein the fluid removercomprises a squeegee roller to apply pressure to the printer surface ata nip to remove the portion of the printing material from the printersurface.
 14. The printer of claim 11, wherein the coating materialcomprises a same material as the printing material.
 15. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the coating further comprises moving the section of thesurface of the fluid remover past a seal of the coating materialreservoir prior to the section of the surface of the fluid removercoming into contact with the coating material within the coatingmaterial reservoir.
 16. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the fluidremover is a cylinder and the surface of the fluid remover is anexterior surface of the cylinder.
 17. The apparatus of claim 16, whereinthe surface of the fluid remover is in contact with the coating materialand the printer surface at the same time.
 18. The apparatus of claim 16,wherein the surface of the fluid remover is in contact with the coatingmaterial, the coating blade, and a seal of the coating materialreservoir at the same time.